Under a DACA amnesty, American taxpayers would be left with a $26 billion bill. About one in five DACA illegal aliens, after an amnesty, would end up on food stamps, while at least one in seven would go on Medicaid. Since DACA’s inception under Obama, more than 2,100 illegal aliens have been kicked off the program after it was revealed that they were either criminals or gang members. JOHN BINDER

Before he won his first term, Barack Obama had already sucked upmore bribes from banksters than any president in history. His promise to these cronies: NO JAIL, NO REAL REGULATION AND UNLIMITED PUBLIC FUNDS TO BUY THEIR COMPETITORS!

Top bankers’ pay rose 17 percent in 2014

By Andre Damon 4 July 2015

CEO pay at 15 of the world’s major banks shot up by 17 percent last year, according to a survey conducted by Equilar and published by the Financial Times Friday.

The typical chief executive at the banks surveyed received $14.5 million last year, up from $12.4 million in 2013. The biggest payout went to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, whose compensation more than doubled, hitting $27.6 million.

The ever-growing payouts to bank executives are the outcome of the measures taken following the 2008 financial crash by the Obama administration and its counterparts around the world, which have aimed at increasing the wealth of the financial oligarchy at the expense of the working class.

The vast sums of money pocketed by bank executives are bound up with activities that range from borderline legal to flagrantly illegal. Nearly all of the CEOs included on the list head banks that have been the subject of multiple investigations and fines related to the rigging of global interest and foreign exchange rates, mortgage fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and other crimes.

Not a single leading banker in the US has been charged, much less gone to jail, for helping cause the 2008 financial meltdown. Rather than being broken up, the biggest banks have been allowed to tighten their grip on the global economy, growing in size and economic power in the aftermath of the crash.The report of the payouts comes less than two months after the latest settlement with major global banks, in which JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) admitted to conspiring to rig global currency exchange rates in order to make billions of dollars at the expense of businesses and individuals around the world.

The foreign exchange rigging settlement, and the wrist-slap fines it entailed, did nothing to impact payouts to the five banks’ CEOs, all of whom were on the list of top-paid executives this year.

The list of bankers reads like a “15 Most Wanted” list, beginning with JPMorgan’s Dimon, the head of the biggest US bank. Dimon has been at the center of numerous scandals, including lying to investors and government regulators about a multibillion-dollar trading loss in 2012, rigging global interest rates and forging mortgage documents to expedite foreclosures. This is in addition to JPMorgan’s role in helping cause the 2008 financial crash by selling toxic mortgage-backed securities.

Dimon, who visited the White House six times in 2009 alone, has been referred to in the media as President Obama’s “favorite banker.”

Next on the list is Morgan Stanley CEO James P. Gorman, whose pay increased 60 percent last year, to $23.1 million. In 2012, Morgan Stanley was fined $5 million for defrauding New York State residents of some $300 million in an electricity price-fixing scheme. That same year, in addition to numerous smaller scandals, the bank paid $6.75 million to resolve charges that it carried out “fictitious sales” of securities.

Number three on the list is Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs. In addition to a litany of scandals, including conspiring to manipulate the prices of oil and aluminum, Goldman’s criminal activities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis were documented in 2011 by the report of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The committee found that Goldman had placed bets against the same toxic mortgage-backed securities it was selling to investors.

Fifth on the list is Stuart Gulliver of HSBC, who received $15.6 million, up from $11.6 million the year before. In December 2012, HSBC paid $1.9 billion to US regulators after being caught laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels. This past February, it was revealed that HSBC’s Swiss private banking business had functioned for years as an international tax evasion service, helping wealthy clients dodge taxes by handing out untaxed “bricks” of cash at its branches.

The lowest-paid executive on the Financial Times list is Ross McEwan, CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland, who received “only” $7.4 million. RBS is 81 percent owned by the British government, meaning the majority of McEwan’s payout came out of the pockets of UK taxpayers.

It is now six years since the Obama administration appointed mediator Kenneth Feinberg as its “special master” of executive pay for companies that were bailed out by the government during the 2008 financial crisis. In the immediate aftermath of the bank bailout, Feinberg rubber-stamped multimillion-dollar bonuses to executives at firms that had received billions of dollars in bailout funds, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

Having performed this service for the US financial oligarchy, Feinberg was last month appointed by the Obama administration to oversee the slashing of pension benefits of retirees at multiemployer pension funds. Feinberg will be given unilateral authority to impose benefit cuts on workers who vote against proposals to slash their benefits.

In addition to direct bailouts, banks have been among the principal beneficiaries of the US Federal Reserve’s policies of near-zero interest rates and “quantitative easing,” by means of which virtually free money has been pumped into the financial system. This policy has been mirrored by central banks throughout the world.

The massive handout to the financial aristocracy has accelerated even as the banks have cut back lending for productive investment. Instead, the banks have used the cash they received at public expense to enrich their shareholders and executives through share buybacks, dividend increases and mergers and acquisitions—all entirely parasitic activities.

Rather than throwing financial criminals like Dimon and Blankfein in jail, the Obama administration has ensured that they continue to receive millions of dollars in pay and bonuses. These facts demonstrate that American “democracy” is in reality a plutocracy—the rule of the rich.

Any attempt to hold the banks and those who run them to account without challenging the capitalist system is impossible. Breaking the power of the financial oligarchy requires the complete reorganization of society on the basis of social need, not private profit.

OBAMA-CLINTONomics:

CEO PAY 300 TIMES GREATER
THAN WORKERS…. AMNESTY WILL MAKE THOSE FIGURES SOAR HIGHER!

“Historically
speaking, the rise in CEO compensation is tied to the global decline of
American capitalism and the increasing financialization of the economy. In 1965
the ratio of CEO to worker pay was 20 to 1. By 1978 the ratio had only grown to
30 to 1. It was only in the 90s that CEO pay reached absurd heights, rising
from 59 to 1 in 1989 to 376 to 1 in 2000.”

“In 2014 the
Russell Sage Foundation found that between 2003 and 2013, the median household
net worth of those in the United States fell from $87,992 to $56,335—a drop of
36 percent. …While the rich also saw their wealth drop during the recession,
they are more than making that money back. Between 2009 and 2012, 95 percent of
all the income gains in the US went to the top 1 percent. This is the most
distorted post-recession income gain on record.”

"While it is
not spelt out directly, the BIS critique of the present policies is an
expression of the fact that, in the final analysis, the source of all forms of
profit is the surplus value extracted from the working class. Therefore, the
only way for capital to overcome its crisis and restore stability is a massive
increase in exploitation."

While the growth of social inequality has dramatically
accelerated following the 2008 crash, this is a continuation of a decades-long
process. The report notes, “Top 1 percent incomes grew by 80.0% from 1993 to
2014. This implies that top 1 percent incomes captured almost 60% of the
overall economic growth of real incomes per family over the period 1993-2014.”

In fact, the US government’s response to the 2008 crash has been
dedicated to inflating the wealth of the super-rich while driving down incomes
for the vast majority of the population. The White House has protected Wall
Street executives from legal prosecution, while the Federal Reserve has handed
out trillions of dollars in cheap money through “quantitative easing” programs,
leading share values to triple on major US exchanges.

On Thursday, US President Barack Obama plans to unveil what he
has called a major new policy initiative in a speech in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
The proposal entails new federal rules that would make an additional 3 percent
of the US population eligible for overtime pay. If adopted, the change would
add a mere $1.3 billion to worker’s wages annually. This is a tiny fraction of
the trillions of dollars that have been transferred to the financial elite
since the 2008 financial crisis.

OBAMA: SERVANT OF THE 1%

Richest one percent controls nearly half of global wealth

The richest one percent of the world’s population now controls 48.2 percent
of global wealth, up from 46 percent last year.

In fact, the US government’s response to the 2008 crash has been
dedicated to inflating the wealth of the super-rich while driving down incomes
for the vast majority of the population. The White House has protected Wall
Street executives from legal prosecution, while the Federal Reserve has handed
out trillions of dollars in cheap money through “quantitative easing” programs,
leading share values to triple on major US exchanges.

These are only the most striking of a barrage of numbers reported in
recent weeks, demonstrating that for the US financial aristocracy, the Crash of
2008 has been used to engineer a historic redistribution of wealth.

The
2008 crash and subsequent developments have revealed certain fundamental
realities about American society. All of the official institutions, including
the presidency, the courts, Congress and the financial regulators, have worked
single-mindedly to shield the banks and the financial elite and enable them to
grow even richer.

“Feinberg, who as the
Obama administration’s “pay tsar” rubber- stamped
multimillion-dollar executive bonuses to Wall Street banks bailed out with taxpayer funds,
will now be given power to slash workers’ benefits at his discretion.”

“By the time of Bill Clinton’s election in 1992, the
Democratic Party had completely repudiated its association with the reforms of
the New Deal and Great Society periods. Clinton gutted welfare programs to
provide an ample supply of cheap labor for the rich (WHICH NOW MEANS OPEN
BORDERS AND NO E-VERIFY!), including a growing layer of black capitalists, and
passed the 1994 Federal Crime Bill, with its notorious “three strikes”
provision that has helped create the largest prison population in the world.”

*

“Calling income and wealth inequality the "great
moral issue of our time," Sanders laid out a sweeping, almost unimaginably
expensive program to transfer wealth from the richest Americans to the poor and
middle class. A $1 trillion public works program to create "13 million
good-paying jobs." A $15-an-hour federal minimum wage. "Pay
equity" for women. Paid sick leave and vacation for everyone. Higher taxes
on the wealthy. Free tuition at all public colleges and universities. A
Medicare-for-all single-payer health care system. Expanded Social Security
benefits. Universal pre-K.” WASHINGTON
EXAMINER

"There
is a populist and conservative revolt against Wall Street and financial elites,
Congress and government," Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg warned in
an analysis this week. "Democrats and President Obama are seen as more
interested in bailing out Wall Street than helping Main Street."

HILLARY CLINTON: A
dedicated disciple of OBAMANOMICS – Why else would his banksters invest so much
in her???

“That her candidacy is announced without calling for
any particular policies underscores the fact that the election is not about the
American people deciding the course of policy, but rather the vetting of
candidates to serve the interest of the financial oligarchy.”

“There is, of course, no acknowledgment that Clinton was part
of an administration that oversaw and continues to oversee the greatest
transfer of wealth from the bottom to “those at the top” in US history.”

BANKSTERS J.P. MORGAN CHASE, BANK of AMERICA
and WELLS FARGO RAKED IN A TOTAL OF $1.14 BILLION FROM OVERDRAFT FEES IN THE
FIRST QUARTER, 2015 ALONE.

SOURCE: SNL FINANCIAL, A
FINANCIAL-INFORMATION FIRM.

CEO WAGES SOAR UNDER OBAMA. POVERTY FOR
AMERICANS SOARS EVEN MORE!

THE OBAMA DOCTRINE: The Rich Must Get Richer
Or Be Bailed Out by the American Middle-Class!

Transfer America’s economy to the richest.
Destroy the American middle-class and expand Mexico’s welfare state on the
backs of the American people to keep wages depressed!

Obama’s State of Delusion

22 January 2015

“On the other hand, every major initiative by Obama in
domestic policy—the 2009 stimulus program, the 2010 health care reform
legislation, the 2010 financial regulatory overhaul, countless budget deals
with the congressional Republicans, right up to the executive order on
immigration issued a month ago—was dictated by the needs of corporate America,
and, in many cases, drafted by corporate lobbyists.”

“The consequences for working people—record long-term
unemployment, a tidal wave of home foreclosures, the slashing of wages in basic
industry, the steady decline in living standards over all—were not accidental.
They were the deliberate goal of government policy, for both Democrats and
Republicans, because mass suffering by the working class was required to obtain
the resources needed to bail out the financial aristocracy.”

Obama’s State of Delusion

22 January 2015

”The delusional character of Obama’s State of
the Union address on Tuesday—presenting an America of rising living standards
and a booming economy, capped by his declaration that the “shadow of crisis has
passed”—is perhaps matched only in its presentation by the media and supporters
of the Democratic Party.”

“The general tone was set by the New York Times in its lead editorial on Wednesday, which described
the speech as a “simple, dramatic message about economic fairness, about the
fact that the well-off—the top earners, the big banks, Silicon Valley—have done
just great, while middle and working classes remain dead in the water.”

OBAMANOMICS:

The report observes
that while the wealth of the world’s 80 richest people doubled between 2009 and
2014, the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population (3.5 billion
people) was lower in 2014 than it was in 2009.

In 2010, it took 388
billionaires to match the wealth of the bottom half of the earth’s population;
by 2013, the figure had fallen to just 92 billionaires. It fell to 80 in 2014.

THE OBAMA ASSAULT
ON THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS

“The
goal of the Obama administration, working with the Republicans and local
governments, is to roll back the living conditions of the vast majority of the
population to levels not seen since the 19th century, prior to the advent of
the eight-hour day, child labor laws, comprehensive public education, pensions,
health benefits, workplace health and safety regulations, etc.”

“In
response to the ruthless assault of the financial oligarchy, spearheaded by
Obama, the working class must advance, no less ruthlessly, its own policy.”"During the month, some 432,000 people in the US gave up looking for a job." EVEN AS JEB BUSH, HILLARY CLINTON and BERNIE SANDERS PREACH AMNESTY! AMNESTY! AMNESTY!"The American phenomenon of record stock values fueling an ever greater concentration of wealth at the very top of society, while the economy is starved of productive investment, the social infrastructure crumbles, and working class living standards are driven down by entrenched unemployment, wage-cutting and government austerity policies, is part of a broader global process."

"A defining expression of this crisis is the dominance of financial speculation and parasitism, to the point where a narrow international financial aristocracy plunders society’s resources in order to further enrich itself."

Federal Reserve documents stagnant state of US economy

By Barry Grey 21 July 2015

The US Federal Reserve Board last week released its semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress, providing an assessment of the state of the American economy and outlining the central bank’s monetary policy going forward. The report, along with Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony before both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as a speech by Yellen the previous week in Cleveland, present a grim picture of the reality behind the official talk of economic “recovery.”
In her prepared remarks to Congress last Wednesday and Thursday, Yellen said, “Looking forward, prospects are favorable for further improvement in the US labor market and the economy more broadly.”

She reiterated her assurances that while the Fed would likely begin to raise its benchmark federal funds interest rate later this year from the 0.0 to 0.25 percent level it has maintained since shortly after the 2008 financial crash, it would do so only slowly and gradually, keeping short-term rates well below historically normal levels for an indefinite period.

This was an expected, but nevertheless welcome, signal to the American financial elite, which has enjoyed a spectacular rise in corporate profits, stock values and personal wealth since 2009 thanks to the flood of virtually free money provided by the Fed.

"But as Yellen’s remarks and the Fed report indicate, the explosion of asset values and wealth accumulation at the very top of the economic ladder has occurred alongside an intractable and continuing slump in the real economy."

In her prepared testimony to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen noted the following features of the performance of the US economy over the first six months of 2015:* A sharp decline in the rate of economic growth as compared to 2014, including an actual contraction in the first quarter of the year.* A substantial slackening (19 percent) in average monthly job-creation, from 260,000 last year to 210,000 thus far in 2015.* Declines in domestic spending and industrial production.In her July 10 speech to the City Club of Cleveland, Yellen cited an even longer list of negative indices, including:* Growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) since the official beginning of the recovery in June, 2009 has averaged a mere 2.25 percent per year, a full one percentage point less than the average rate over the 25 years preceding what Yellen called the “Great Recession.”* While manufacturing employment nationwide has increased by about 850,000 since the end of 2009, there are still almost 1.5 million fewer manufacturing jobs than just before the recession.* Real GDP and industrial production both declined in the first quarter of this year. Industrial production continued to fall in April and May.* Residential construction (despite extremely low mortgage rates by historical standards) has remained “quote soft.”* Productivity growth has been “weak,” largely because “Business owners and managers… have not substantially increased their capital expenditures,” and “Businesses are holding large amounts of cash on their balance sheets.”* Reflecting the general stagnation and even slump in the real economy, core inflation rose by only 1.2 percent over the past 12 months.The Monetary Policy Report issued by the Fed includes facts that are, if anything, even more alarming, including:* “Labor productivity in the business sector is reported to have declined in both the fourth quarter of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015.”* “Exports fell markedly in the first quarter, held back by lackluster growth abroad.”* “Overall construction activity remains well below its pre-recession levels.”* “Since the recession began, the gains in… nominal compensation [workers’ wages and benefits] have fallen well short of their pre-recession averages, and growth of real compensation has fallen short of productivity growth over much of this period.”* “Overall business investment has turned down as investment in the energy sector has plunged. Business investment fell at an annual rate of 2 percent in first quarter… Business outlays for structures outside of the energy sector also declined in the first quarter…”
The report incorporates the Fed’s projections for US economic growth, published following the June meeting of the central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. They include a downward revision of the projection for 2015 to 1.8 percent-2.0 percent from the March projection of 2.3 percent to 2.7 percent.

That the US economy continues to stagnate and even contract is indicated by two surveys released last week while Yellen was testifying before Congress. The Fed reported that factory production failed to increase in June for the second straight month and output in the auto sector fell 3.7 percent. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales unexpectedly fell in June, declining by 0.3 percent.
These statistics follow the employment report for June, which showed that the share of the US working-age population either employed or actively looking for work, known as the labor force participation rate, fell to 62.6 percent, its lowest level in 38 years. During the month, some 432,000 people in the US gave up looking for a job.

The disastrous figures on business investment are perhaps the most telling indicators of the underlying crisis of the capitalist system. The Fed report attributes the sharp decline so far this year primarily to the dramatic fall in oil prices and resulting contraction in investment and construction in the energy sector. But the plunge in oil prices is itself a symptom of a general slowdown in the world economy.
Moreover, a dramatic decline in productive investment is common to all of the major industrialized economies of Europe and North America. In its World Economic Outlook of last April, the International Monetary Fund for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis acknowledged that there was no prospect for an early return to pre-recession levels of economic growth, linking this bleak prognosis to a general and pronounced decline in productive investment.

The American phenomenon of record stock values fueling an ever greater concentration of wealth at the very top of society, while the economy is starved of productive investment, the social infrastructure crumbles, and working class living standards are driven down by entrenched unemployment, wage-cutting and government austerity policies, is part of a broader global process.
The economic crisis in the US and internationally is not simply a conjunctural downturn. It is a systemic crisis of global capitalism, centered in the US. A defining expression of this crisis is the dominance of financial speculation and parasitism, to the point where a narrow international financial aristocracy plunders society’s resources in order to further enrich itself.

While the economy is starved of productive investment, entirely parasitic and socially destructive activities such as stock buybacks, dividend hikes and mergers and acquisitions return to pre-crash levels and head for new heights. US corporations have spent more on stock buybacks so far this year than on factories and equipment.
The intractable nature of this crisis, within the framework of capitalism, is underscored by the IMF’s updated World Economic Outlook, released earlier this month, which projects that 2015 will be the worst year for economic growth since the height of the recession in 2009.